


A call in the night

by TerresDeBrume



Series: Rumor Has It (We're all selfish morons) [24]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Epistolary, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-06
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-04 11:38:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/710385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everybody knows it: If it’s after midnight, it’s either drunk or bad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A call in the night

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently, if I'm going to write fluff, I'll need to do some angst in the middle, too.
> 
> Sorry?

**TRANSCRIPT DATABASE: Malibu Workshop.**  
 **TIME** **: August 29, 2030 - 03:30 AM**  
  
  
 _“Tony Stark.”_  
  
  
That’s how the transcript starts. That’s always how the transcripts start, because Tony always answers his phone the same way -it’s a habit he’s gotten into when he got big in the business and people started forgetting he deserved hellos and pleases and thank yous. It throws them off their games and Tony can’t say he doesn’t like the knowledge -it doesn’t make his life any easier but there you go: good old fashioned revenge.  
  
  
 _Someone at the end of the line is sobbing. Trying to speak, inhaling air to form words, sentences, anything… and then the sound of sobs resuming, harsh and impossible to reign in._  
  
  
There are voices you could place anywhere. Tony can recognize Pepper in a crowd just by the way she sneezes, Steve by his laughter, Rhodey from the sound of his sighs… it’s kind of frightening that after fifteen years without speaking to him, it took Tony less than a second to identify the man sobbing.  
  
  
 _“Loki? Loki what’s wrong? Goddamnit, are you having a panick attack?_  
  
 _Two taps._  
  
  
It’s weird, sometimes, how fast people can fall back into old means of communications. Sometimes when they were young, coherent sentences were too much. Because of the cravings, yes, but also because they were young, and alone, and affraid, and because neither of them has ever been very good with speaking in times of distress.  
  
Tap once for yes, two for no. It never trully left, did it?  
  
  
 _“Loki, are you in New Dehli?”_  
  
 _Tap, tap._  
  
 _On the other end of the line, the sobs turn into something different, something darker._

  
  
Something Tony remembers from the two or three times he picked a fight he shouldn’t have. Hearing that sound on the phone… He’s still not sure if his heart really stopped, but it certainly felt like it -still does, really. It’s funny nobody checked him up now they’re here, but then they’re a little too busy for that. And Tony wouldn’t let them take him away anyway.  
  
  
 _“Are you hurt?”_  
  
 _Tap._  
  
 _“Is help on the way?”_  
  
 _It’s a raw, panicked voice, and for the heartbeat it take before the answer comes, it fills the blank with a degree of fear not many people would associate with Tony Stark._  
  
 _Tap._  
  
 _“Are you alone?”_  
  
 _Tap, tap._  
  
 _“Thor?”_  
  
 _Tap._  
  
 _“Loki what the fuck happened, did you fight?”_    
  
  
A pause, too long and too telling… they fought, Tony guessed then, but not against each other. He wondered -still wonders- who did it. If it was because they were two men, because they were too rich, too pale, too foreign. Was it because they looked at someone they shouldn’t have, or because they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was there any way they could have avoided it?  
  
  
 _“Is Thor hurt, too?”_  
  
 _A sob, high pitched, hurt, not unlike the sound of an animal dying… and then, above it all, the sharp intake of breath of a man in his workshop, the metallic clang of tools falling to the ground and the soft doot-doots of pieces of electronics trying to figure out what is up with their creator._  
  
 _“Are you in the states?”_  
  
 _Tap._  
  
 _“Are you in New York?”_  
  
 _Tap._  
  
 _“Oh my God, Loki, did you try to show him the Orphanage?”_  
  
 _Tap._  
  
  
He’d left ennemies there, people he’d humiliated, beaten, stolen from. People he’d refused to be impressed by, people he’d refused to yield to, to cover, to help… the establishment wasn’t all that corrupted, but it did sit in a bad neighborhood, from what Loki said, and things were rough, even for those who didn’t get into drugs.  
  
Loki should never had gone back there, but judging by the sounds he makes, he knows that, too.  
  
 _“Alright, okay, don’t panic. I’m flying in -Jarvis, find me a flight and the hospital they’re going to, now, I want to be in the air within the hour.”_  
  
 _A pause and then, strangled:_  
  
 _“Ton— Thor…”_  
  
  
Tony sits in a white corridor, as close to the operation block as he can be without actually entering it, and his eyes haven’t left the door for over two hours. Behind him, two boys are huddled together, eyes rimmed red, anxiously waiting for the man they call Bruce to come back.  
  
Tony doesn’t remember how to pray, but he’s doing his best approximation of it.  
  
 _“Dead—”_  
  
 _After that, the recording gives nothing but a panicked, uninterrupted flow of words and please, please, please talk to me, until the sound is drowned by the noises of sirens and late-night traffic in Malibu._

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, reviews and death threats are appreciated, both here or, if you'd like to remain anonymous, [on Tumblr](http://terresdebrumestories.tumblr.com/ask)


End file.
